“I played sports ever since I was a child. I used to play soccer but mainly basketball, as I have been blessed with a height of 1.95 meters,” said Saleh Shaheen, 41, a Druze paralympic athlete from Shfaram.
Shaheen’s life began in a typical fashion. He enlisted in the IDF in 2003 as a paratrooper and also served as a commander. After his mandatory service, he enrolled in a course led by the Airports Authority and worked at the Karni Terminal on the border of the Gaza Strip as a security guard.“Then, on January 13, 2005, my life changed in just one night.” Three terrorists from Hamas, the PFLP, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade penetrated the Karni Terminal by planting an explosive device in the wall; they killed six civilians.“I arrived at the area of the explosion to fight the terrorists, but it was pitch dark, as electricity was down due to the explosion, leaving me exposed. I faced the first terrorist, and we exchanged fire. He shot four bullets towards my left leg, also damaging my stomach and intestines,” Shaheen said.“It was pretty serious damage, though I didn’t feel at all that I was injured. I shot, and the terrorist and I fell together. Two other terrorists infiltrated, and the rest of the security guards arrived. There I was, with a dead terrorist lying next to me and an exchange of fire taking place between the guards and the terrorists over my head. I managed, with my last bit of strength, to crawl and make it to safety, where another Druze security guard saw me. He tried to lift me, but I weighed 115 kilos, so it took him two or three more attempts until he managed and brought me to the back office.
“They put me in an ambulance and sped to Soroka [Hospital]. I remember the ride; it’s probably the longest one I’ve ever had in my life. I started to feel the pain. I wanted to fall asleep, but the medic wouldn’t let me. When the ambulance door opened, I put my hand over my face so that no one would recognize me, and there’s a famous picture showing that scene. I was in the operating room for 17 hours straight. When I woke up, I saw my parents next to me and began to fathom what had happened. I tore a main artery in my leg, and somehow, I stayed alive.”
Shaheen stayed for three more weeks in Soroka until his situation was stabilized, and then he was sent to Rambam in Haifa, which was more convenient for his family. “I spent three challenging months at Rambam, and although many people came to visit, it wasn’t a particularly easy time for me. I got metal implants for my legs, and I needed to train to rehabilitate them so I could attempt to go back to sports. My entire life revolved around sports until that point,” he reminisced.
First steps in Paralympic sports
An acquaintance approached Shaheen a little over five years ago and suggested he try wheelchair basketball. “It seemed unnatural to me at first,” he said. “I tried and fell several times and ended up thinking that I don’t have the strength for more falls and injuries and recovering. At end of the day, I had learned to accept my injury and looked at it as my fate. I told myself that I must get up; I can’t stay in the same place. So I continued training and playing wheelchair basketball in Haifa and Tel Aviv, and even tried out wheelchair badminton.”Shaheen ended up joining a mixed Jewish-Arab group in Majd Al-Kroum in the North, winning a national cup in the first year and making it to the Premier League.In 2019, Shaheen was approached again, this time with an offer to join paralympic rowing. “I had no idea what it was at first. I was told that it involved two training sessions every day and much traveling,” he recounted. “I hesitated at first, but I saw the challenging aspects and took my abilities to the limit, and decided that this is a sport I want to be a part of.”
Shaheen started training with a group of four, but then the condition of his leg deteriorated. The implant fell out, and he was hospitalized again – until he was classified as PR2, which is defined as having functional use of arms and trunk but with weakness or absence of leg function to slide the seat of the boat, rowing on a double boat for a duo of a man and a woman.“When I started this classification, they were only missing a female rower, and I was on hold for a while. Then, one day, I received a call saying that they found a young woman, Shahar Milfelder, who had cancer at the age of 16 and had to have part of her pelvis removed. I jumped right in and went back to rowing.”Shaheen and Milfelder began training together only two years ago. “Every day, I drive around 230 kilometers, wake up at five in the morning, perform two training sessions, and go back. This routine is very demanding, especially at the expense of family and work. I own a convenience store and had to hire a local employee so that I could be devoted to sports alone,” Shaheen explained.Supported by scholarships and aid from the Israel Paralympic Committee, Shaheen and Milfelder made a significant leap and advanced to the World Championship less than a year ago. There, they missed the chance to get a ticket to the Paralympic games due to some changes in categories for qualifications.“We missed the ticket by 30 hundredths of a second and even came in first place in the second round; we were really bummed. Then, two weeks ago, there was a ‘last chance’ competition for the last two tickets. People believed in us; we arrived as prepared as we could be. Then we finished first in the first round, and in the second one, we finished second with a difference of 40 hundredths of a second.”This was enough to send the duo to the Paralympic Games. “I was literally in tears,” said Shaheen. “Now we are getting back to preparing for the Olympics. Next month, we will fly for a long training camp, and then in August, we will move to Paris to give our performance at the Olympics. I want to thank the Paralympics Association for its trust and support in all fields, from nutrition to treatments, scholarships, and even travel reimbursements.”Back at home, Shaheen said that his community had barely heard of this branch of sports. “It’s not really well known in my society. Not many people at home contacted me, except the sports department in the municipality. Truth be told, I myself didn’t know anything about it before I started, and I didn’t realize how fascinating and challenging the world of rowing can be.” For this reason, Shaheen said he hopes to change things in the future.“Hopefully, after the Olympics, I will work to promote rowing in Israel generally and in the North more specifically,” he said.Asked what he is looking forward to most, Shaheen said that, more than anything, he is excited to leave a mark in history. “My message is that to achieve your dreams, you must stop everything and focus on the goal. It’s true that I had to put my business to the side and that it comes at the expense of other things. But this is what it takes to make your dream come true.”